Dear CPC Flock,

As we approach Christmas this week, it’s easy to get distracted by a thousand things, some of which may be good. However, there is one thing that is most necessary. That we focus on Christ. Make this Puritan prayer yours.

O Father of Jesus,

Help me to approach thee with deepest reverence, not with presumption, not with servile fear, but with holy boldness. Thou art beyond the grasp of my understanding, but not beyond that of my love. Thou knowest that I love thee supremely, for thou art supremely adorable, good, perfect.

My heart melts at the love of Jesus, my brother, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, married to me, dead for me, risen for me; He is mine and I am his, given to me as well as for me; I am never so much mine as when I am his, or so much loss to myself until lost in him; then I find my true manhood.

But my love is frost and cold, ice and snow; Let his love warm me, lighten my burden, be my heaven; may it be more revealed to me in all its influences that my love to him may be more fervent and glowing; Let the mighty tide of his everlasting love cover the rocks of my sin and care; Then let my spirit float above those things which had else wrecked my life.

Make me fruitful by living to that love, my character becoming more beautiful every day. If traces of Christ’s love-artistry be upon me, may he work on with his divine brush until the complete image be obtained and I be made a perfect copy of him my master.

O Lord Jesus, come to me, O Divine Spirit, rest on me, O Holy Father, look on me in mercy for the sake of the well-beloved. (Valley of Vision, Praise and Thanksgiving, 45-46)

—Pastor Clif